Summer Movie Staff Pick: PARIS IS BURNING

Let the summer movie staff pick Fridays begin!

Starting today and continuing on Fridays throughout the summer, we'll be posting a movie that someone on our staff has picked as their favorite Miramax film. While the summer blockbusters invade the theaters, consider watching one of the staff picks over the weekend instead.

Today's pick is from Zach Middleton. Zach works on our social media team and chose the award-winning film, Paris is Burning.

I love documentaries because they capture a specific moment in time and tell personal stories that might otherwise be lost to the past. That's certainly true of Paris is Burning. It is a portrait of New York's drag ball culture of the late 1980s that centers around a primarily African American group of gay men, drag queens and transgender women who are ostracized by their families and society because of who they are. It provides a window into a counterculture that captures its subjects' strength, resilience and pride in the face of enormous struggle. It is also an important social commentary on class, gender, race and the quest for fame. The film inspires younger generations of LGBT people and has spawned countless quotes and terms that are readily used in the gay community today. This is documentary realness.

View more clips from Paris is Burning below, watch it on Netflix streaming or buy the film on Amazon, available on DVD now.

Come back every Friday to check out more Staff Picks and let us know what you think of this film in the comments below.

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